Want To Stop Gossip? Go On A Diet. 7/14/2018

Good Morning,

Door County Chocolate Cherry Coffee is brewing in the kitchen as I sit down to write. Our Springer Spaniel is next to me sound asleep. There is a gentle rain falling to water our parched land. This has the makings of a nice day.

Proverbs 18:8 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁸ The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
    they go down into the inner parts of the body.

I believe I have found the cure to gossip. I really can't claim that it was discovered by me or invented through wisdom of my own. I found it where God placed it for all of us to see. I found it in His Word Proverbs 18:8.

A few years ago when Rene and I were dieting for the 100th time in our lives, I noticed something, We were throwing away a lot of bread. Both of us had started to reduce carbohydrates in our diet and before long the loaf of bread that I baked weekly wasn't being eaten and it had to be tossed out. The discovery was this. Once we started reducing the intake, we found that we really did not miss the bread at all and eliminated it from our daily calories.

Now on the flip side all it took was a couple times of cheating on our diet, and the bread made it's way back into our lives and so did the unwanted pounds.

Gossip my friends is a sin, but when the gossiper has no one to listen to his or her slanderous words they soon decide that it's not getting them the attention or results they desired. So it slows down and then eventually the gossip stops. You see, my friends, gossip is like a baseball game it needs a pitcher and a catcher. If a pitcher does not have a catcher, he soon tires of throwing and chasing his own ball. Gossip needs two people to be effective and the sin is shared by both the pitcher and the catcher. When we decide to change our diet and not take in the gossip, we have done our part to stop the pitcher from throwing more gossip. We reduce our sin intake.

God gave us a good plan for righteous, and healthy living. We can avoid the pain of gossip by just shutting it down. Like the cardiologist who warns us about our weight, God also warns us about our mouths.

Matthew 12:36 New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.

Let's lighten our diets today and reduce the hurt and pain of gossip. refuse to play catch.


Marty